andel’sSinfonia really is a trio sonata in form, with written
parts for two high instruments over a bass line. The terms “sonata”
(from the Italian suonare — to sound) and sinfonia
(from a Greek term meaning sounding together) illustrate an historical
casualness in specific terminology. (Consider this later as it applies
to Corelli’s Sonata for Trumpet — actually
a concerto!) Here the bass line isn’t even “figured”
with indications for chords to the harpsichordist who must read
the full score in order to determine implied harmonies. The three
lines in the texture are treated equally in the outer movements,
with the violoncello assuming unusual rhythmic prominence in the
Adagio.BACK

ach
wrote flute sonatas with written out harpsichord parts
(this being one of those, making the keyboard player a true partner)
and with basso continuo (the harpsichord making up its
part over the implied harmonies, and with the inclusion of a violoncello).
There also is a partita for unaccompanied flute. The original version
of this sonata, then in G minor, was written when Bach was serving
the court in Cöthen (1717-1723); his later version, now in
B minor, was done in Leipzig in the 1730s, surely for his famous
Collegium Musicum that regularly performed in a coffee house. BACK

iviani’sSonata Prima for trumpet
and keyboard, in the same key of C, was heard on our Monday evening
organ recital. This second sonata also is in five movements, the
second and fourth in bipartite form without the usual later-Baroque
key changes (tonic to dominant and back). One hears occasional imitations
or echoes between trumpet and keyboard, sometimes with the harpsichord’s
top voice (the second Allegro and the Aria)and sometimes the left
hand’s bass (the opening Allegro), but no real fugue emerges.
BACK

travinsky’s
compositions based on themes of Pergolesi include the ballet Pulcinella
(1920) and the Suite from Pulcinella for chamber orchestra
(1922, revised 1947). There followed, in 1925, the Suite d’après
themes, fragments et pieces de Giambattista Pergolesi for violin
and piano, and, in 1932,the Suite Italienne for violoncello and
piano, in collaboration with famed cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.

In the 1960s, Piatigorsky further arranged the suite for unaccompanied
violin and cello for a Los Angeles concert and RCA recording with
Jascha Heifetz. The unpublished manuscript was located by this writer
in the files of the late Piatigorsky and taken for performance in
this room by kind permission of Jaqueline de Rothschild Piatigorsky.
Its first public performance in three decades, for our 1992 Festival,
was by violinist Clayton Haslop and cellist Evan Drachman, Piatigorsky’s
grandson, and it was repeated to great audience acclaim by Haslop
with cellist Timothy Landauer in 1999 and again in 2005.

This amazing and as yet unpublished piece that is based on themes
of Pergolesi (2010 being his 300th birthday), heard nowhere else,
is offered here for the fourth time, this evening in the brilliant
hands of violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock with veteran virtuoso Timothy
Landauer.BACK

ach
wrote six Partitas for solo harpsichord that are suites primarily
of dance forms. The first begins with a Praeludium, the second with
a Sinfonia, the third a Fantasia, the fifth a Praeambulum, and the
sixth a Toccata. The fourth begins with this Ouverture, spelled
by Bach in the French manner, surely to call attention to the opening
dotted rhythms of the traditional stately French Overture. The repeated
first section properly gives way to a fugal texture that alternates
its 9/8 subject in swinging triplets with propulsive sixteenth-note
scale passages, sometimes in duet. BACK

orelli’s trumpet sonata opens with all forces
together, then proceeds as expected to a fast fugue. The middle
Grave gives the trumpet a rest, while the following Allegro is for
trumpet supported only by cello and harpsichord. The final Allegro
pits the three upper voices in an imitative texture over a firmly
supportive bass. BACK